World Heritage Centre signs Memorandum of Understanding with the French Marine Protected Area Agency

The World Heritage Centre and the French Marine Protected Area Agency (AAMP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in support of the conservation of marine World Heritage sites. The World Heritage Centre and AAMP have cooperated informally over the past years, in particular on efforts for the conservation marine World Heritage in the Indian Ocean and strengthening the World Heritage marine site managers network. This Memorandum of Understanding formalizes the collaboration and expands it to encompass a larger scope of activities, primarily in the Pacific Ocean.

Joint initiatives will focus on improving management capacity in marine World Heritage sites and assistance to potential new sites in the Pacific region. The AAMP will also co-host the second World Heritage marine site managers conference in October 2013.

The agreement comes at a very opportune time. The World Heritage Marine Programme is preparing to release its 10 Years strategy for conservation of marine World Heritage sites, while the AAMP is getting ready to host the world’s Third International Marine Protected Area Congress in 2013.

About the UNESCO’s Marine World Heritage programme

Launched in 2005, the mission of the World Heritage Marine Programme is to establish effective conservation of existing and potential marine areas of Outstanding Universal Value to make sure they will be maintained and thrive for generations to come. https://whc.unesco.org/en/marine-programme.

About the French Marine Protected Area Agency (AAMP)

The AAMP is a French public establishment dedicated to the protection of the marine environment. Its purposes are to support public policies related to creation and management of MPA; to manage the human and financial resources dedicated to marine nature parks; to give technical and administrative support to managers of MPA areas and to develop regional and international cooperation in the field of marine resource management and conservation.